Qualcomm is about to unleash a 1.2 GHz, dual-core chipset on the smart phone and netbook market. (Source: Qualcomm)

Watch out x86, your power hungry days may be numbered

There's
no secret why the ARM architecture has trounced the x86 architecture
in the mobile arena. The lowest Intel mobile processors
(utilizing the Atom architecture) can get is
0.65 W (800 MHz Silverthorne,
Atom Z Series), while ARM processors are typically well below half a
watt in power consumption.

Overall, at similar clock speeds,
the ARM architecture simply appears to hold certain power efficiency
advantages. The natural question becomes, if ARM can work such
wonders in the power sensitive mobile arena, could it compete in the
more computing-power sensitive netbook/notebook
arena.

Qualcomm, one of the biggest ARM licensees,
apparently believes the answer is "yes." At Computex
2010 in Taiwan, Qualcomm unveiled its third-generation Mobile Station
Modem MSM8260 and MSM8660 Snapdragon chipsets, with the option of
dual-core ARM CPUs clocked at up
to 1.2 GHz.

The MSM8260 supports HSPA+, a rising 3.5G
technology being
deployed by AT&T and T-Mobile. The MSM8660 supports
both HSPA+ and rival 1xEV-DO Rev. B tech, a 3.5G technology which
will be utilized by Verizon and Sprint during their own 4G
transition. Support for these advanced standards makes the
chipset ideally suited for making speedy next generation cell
phones.

Among the other impressive features integrated on the
chip include GPS, a GPU with 2D / 3D acceleration engines for Open GL
ES 2.0 and Open VG 1.1, 1080p video encoding and decoding, a
dedicated low-power audio engine, and support for 24-bit WXGA 1,280 x
800 pixel displays. The GPU is likely sourced from AMD/ATI as
past chipsets, such as the one used in the Nexus
One, had a dedicated on-chip GPU die based on the z430 (ATI/AMD)
design.

Thus far, no one has shown off any SnapDragon 1.2 GHz
dual core smartphones or netbooks, but we can only hope and assume
the industry's finest are toiling away to make some killer next
generation devices.

Thus far, the Android platform has made
heavy use of Qualcomm's Snapdragon arsenal, so don't be
surprised if you see a dual-core Android smartphone storming onto the
market sometime in the near future. Let's just hope it has
a very
big battery
or some smart switching technology to turn off the second core when
not in use.

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